HAL do you read me, HAL?

Today marked not one, but two great losses.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and a multitude of other classic novels, a true pioneer in the field of sci-fi literature passed away at the age of 90. He had a good run, but it's still sad to see him go, he truly was one of the greats. In fact, there should be a law or something against such people passing away.

Anthony Minghella, director of such movies as The English Patient, Cold Mountain and others, also passed away unexpectedly, at 54. While I was never his biggest fan -I especially find The English Patient to be insufferably dull- he was still a very accomplished director, with a lot of talent. Moreover, he was still relatively young and had a lot of productive years ahead of him. A true shame.

In other news, Euroleague 2007 champions Panathinaikos (and incidentally, my favorite team) managed to get knocked out of the competition during the group phase, but I'll cover the backlash from that tomorrow. Shame there's no media strike in Greece tomorrow as well, it ends in a few hours, in fact.

Instead, I'll close this post with a video that is probably quite popular on the Internet today, Arthur Clarke's 90th birthday reflections, which also served as a farewell to his friends and fans. I could commend on this, but it would be highly unnecessary, I find.